And so summer school commences. Contrary to all perceptions, math and physics does not, in any way, make for even a half-interesting summer. One interesting thing did happen recently, though. Back in the seventh grade, my best friend was a christian girl whose aunt was in charge of the secondary division. As a result, any trouble we got into, my friend was blamed for because I was, as far as her aunt was concerned, a polite little angel that only spoke when spoken to and her neice, whom she had known since infanthood, was a little devil on wheels who would instigate trouble. Anyhow, around the end of the year, I transferred schools and she migrated to Canada.

Recently, through a friend, I got back in touch with seventh grade best friend, which was sort of odd. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have trouble talking to people who I haven't seen in a good long time. "How've you been" just doesn't seem to cover it and any personal questions I ask seem intrusive, even to me. After years of being out of their lives, who am I to ask for information they're not volunteering on their own? Anyhow, once back in communication, my old friend started excitedly naming all these places and people and events and I just nodded along, figuratively speaking, because I realized after the first few minutes that I did not know what she was talking about.

I always hated my first school. When I was ready to get admitted into the first grade, my parents took me to CJM and St. Joesph's for the admission tests and I cleared both so the choice was mine. As with any child, I made the choice based on the school grounds. Whatever else you may say, St. Joesph's has an amazingly huge compount at its disposal, ideal for children to run around in, and so the choice was made. Now let it be clear, I detested the place from the beginning. All the other girls were overachievers, so much so that I would fall squarely in the 30th position, if not lower, in a class of sixty girls when report day would come around. What's the worst thing to be in a school full of overachivers? Absolutely ordinary, that's what. Add that to the fact that in the first grade, I had incomplete notes throughout the year because, according to the teacher, I had neat but very slow handwriting. In the second grade, I speeded up and was awarded with a remark in my report card about how my writing was illegible at worst and just plan tiny at best. One very large downside to being in an all girls' school is that if you should be a tomboy who prefers the company of and makes friends with boys much faster than with girls, you're doomed. As for the authority figures, most of them were nuns, which did teach me to curb my expletives and gain an appreciation of the beauty of churches, even the small ones in that area. I often joke about having blocked off that part of my memory, but it seemed, as my old friend went on and on about people, places and events I must have been a part of alongside her, but could not remember for the life of me, I had actually managed to physically block that part of my life spent while subconsciously ticking off the days on prison wall. My only lasting memories of that place are the churches, the huge statue of Jesus and the angels next to the school which I asked Christian friends about as I stared in awe, the canteen lady who would overcharge, and the one-armed math teacher who made me sit in the class and do my math homework while everyone else got to go outside and play. Little wonder that I got horrible grades and almost flunked out. Oddly, once I changed schools, I got top grades and (for once in my life), finished a math exam before anyone else, had it graded before my eyes and walked out of the exam room with a 92%.

Why am I going on about all this? Because if anyone else ever has a habitually unachieving, misfit kid, don't plop him/her into the most reputed schools, but plop him/her into a place they can do well and actually gain some damn confidence.